We Talked To A Neuroscientist About How A Tiny Brain Hack Can Change Your Life

“Now you can tell your boss that, when you’re looking out the window, you’re actually really busy,” laughs Dr Fiona Kerr, author of The Art & Science of Looking Up. She jokes about it but promises it’s true. When we look up and away from screens we change our brains and make them work better, faster, more creatively.

Dr Kerr is a thought leader whose work ranges from cognitive neuroscience, complex systems engineering, anthropology and psychology. Her studies cross the divide between human interaction and technology, and her latest report, The Art & Science of Looking Up, dives deep into the benefits of one tiny brain hack – letting yourself daydream for a few minutes can improve almost every aspect of your life.

Looking up and daydreaming have a range of benefits, from the physical to the creative. “We didn’t want to make the title too long, but it’s also got neural cognitive benefits, it’s got complex thinking benefits, it’s got creative benefits, and it’s even got things like immune system benefits,” Kerr explains.

The Art & Science of Looking Up is more than a scientific report – it’s also a challenge to all of us to disconnect from our phones and computers (after you’ve finished reading this article, of course) and look up at the world around us: “Looking at another person, at something in your immediate vicinity or looking up and out to a window or wherever you are – just connecting with either the environment or a human.”

This Is Your Brain On Daydreaming

Kerr explains what happens in our brains when we look up: “We shift our horizon – looking at others and engaging empathically changes how we make decisions and solve problems.”

“What you’re doing then is setting off some chemicals in your brain and your body that are pleasurable – everything from oxytocin to dopamine, right through to increasing your serotonin uptake which then allows your immune system to hop along more healthily, and that also affects your nervous system, your mood, and actually your speed of gathering information – bringing relevant information all in one place into your brain.”

The easiest way to put this brain hack into action is by daydreaming. In a society obsessed with being active and productive, daydreaming can seem counter-intuitive, but Kerr urges that it’s absolutely necessary.

“We often go down a rabbit hole – we work our brain to do something specific in a particular area for a particular outcome, so we’re kind of restricting it. But when you’re in daydreaming mode then you allow multiple parts of the brain to turn on,” she explains.

Daydreaming is like a release for our brains and when we stop forcing them to work on one specific thread of concentration, they work autonomously to gather everything they know about the subject into a cohesive thought. “Ahh! Now I can go and get number three and seven and five and give it to you because that’s really relevant,” Kerr says, imitating our brains at work.

Look Up To Relationships

One of the biggest impacts that this brain hack can have on our lives is in our relationships with other people. Kerr is especially excited to talk about what happens in our brains when we make direct eye contact with another person or share an experience with a large group of people.

“There’s a part of your brain that only stands up when you see a person in real life. You stimulate the emotional parts of your brain and you get a dose of oxytocin and dopamine and vasopressin.” Which is science-speak for the fact that making positive eye contact with someone makes you happier.

The same kind of thing happens in big groups. Kerr uses a music concert as an example of a contagion effect making our brains happy: “You tend to get that real high, because everybody fed on each other, and there’s a lot of chemical interaction going on in that concert.”

Put Down The Phone

That’s not to say that online conversations or phone calls can’t be meaningful, but Kerr warns that taking a break by using our phones isn’t the same thing as daydreaming.

“As soon as you pick the phone up thinking that you’re going to relax, what you’re actually doing is going for a dopamine hit. Because that distraction or the game or the text is just that short dopamine spike, and it’s distracting your brain.”

Which is bad news for anyone who can usually be found glued to their phones, but the good news is that it’s actually quite easy to break habits that are bad for us.

Her tip for anyone planning on taking up the challenge: find something that interests you. Whether that’s looking out the window to a nice view, taking a different route to work each day or switching off your phone for an hour each night, the easiest way to let your brain daydream is by finding something that you’re interested in or can make a game out of.

“It takes about three months to change a habit,” she advises. “So try to find something that interests you, or just make sure that if you’re in a coffee line you don’t bring your phone out – when that’s gone, then you’ve got the options like talking to someone or daydreaming.”

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(Lead image: Eunice Lituañas)